On Friday morning, June 30, The Cloud Foundation (TCF) received an anonymous tip that Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and/or top Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officials have ordered all wild horses currently in short-term holding facilities be categorized by weight and age in anticipation of the approval of the federal budget. The current recommendation for this budget would allow for “sale without limitation” of many or most of the wild horses currently in holding.

This could eventually lead to the barbaric slaughter of our iconic wild horses.

The tipster stated that this categorization was to ensure the BLM was ready to “ship out” horses older than five years of age. The only place to “ship out” these horses would likely be to slaughter. The caller stated that the shipping would start with the smaller facilities so that wild horse advocates would not be able to impose an injunction before the plan was already started. The caller also told TCF that direction has been given to one of the government’s top transportation officials to prepare for shipping.

Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of TCF said, “Surely Secretary Zinke would not allow for this devious, clandestine and under-the-radar ploy to destroy wild horses when 80% of Americans are against horse slaughter. If only Secretary Zinke and other DOI and BLM officials would have implemented tried and proven on-the-range-management ideas as we have requested for over a decade, we would not be where we are today.” Ms. Kathrens states, “Options such repatriation of older horses in holding to the millions of acres that were designated ranges for these animals is a much more human solution.”

“There are nearly 50,000 wild horses that have been rounded up, torn apart from their families, and corralled at the taxpayer expense because on-the-range-management has not been implemented. Hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep graze at little or no cost,” says Lisa Friday, volunteer Vice President of The Cloud Foundation. “Our indigenous American icons deserve better.”